Recently announced financial reports reveal that large publicly traded cryptocurrency miners are selling Bitcoin to finance their operations, while accelerating the transition from ASIC devices to GPUs on the hardware side. At the same time, companies are devoting more and more resources to building infrastructure for AI cloud services, with contracts exceeding billions of dollars. It has been observed that the industry’s interest in the field of artificial intelligence has accelerated, especially with the decrease in revenues from Bitcoin mining.
Giant energy facility step from MARA
On April 30, MARA Holdings, a leading US Bitcoin miner, announced that it had acquired Long Ridge Energy & Power from FTAI Infrastructure for a total of $1.5 billion. With this agreement, a 505 megawatt natural gas power plant and 1,600 decares of land with industrial permit in the state of Ohio came under the control of MARA. The company plans to establish a large data center campus here. MARA CEO Fred Thiel stated that there is intense interest in the data center infrastructure at the facility, and that negotiations are continuing with important customers who will rent the space with the completion of the new contract.
Following the agreement, MARA also initiated a voting process to change existing debt terms on Long Ridge’s $600 million senior bonds. The company has 38,689 Bitcoins on its balance sheet; This amount was recorded as the highest level among publicly traded miners.
IREN and massive AI investment
IREN Limited generated revenues of $144.8 million in the third quarter of the fiscal year; This represents a 22 percent decrease compared to the previous period. The company’s annual recurring revenue target for the end of the year was announced as $3.7 billion. On the other hand, IREN signed a 5-year cloud contract with artificial intelligence expert NVIDIA, worth a total of 3.4 billion dollars. Within the scope of the agreement, new generation Blackwell GPUs with a capacity of 60 megawatts will be deployed in IREN’s data center in Childress, Texas. In addition, the two companies cooperated for a 5 GW data center infrastructure worldwide.
Daniel Roberts, co-founder and CEO of IREN, emphasized that there is a global gap in computing capacity and that data centers and GPU capacity remain tight in supply.
Small miners and new business models
Smaller mining companies are also divesting their assets and turning to AI. Canada-based DMG Blockchain Solutions produced 21 BTC in April; There was a slight decrease compared to 23 BTC in March. DMG also established a new subsidiary, DMG Infrastructure, to prepare its existing data center for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. The company’s CEO, Sheldon Bennett, stated that keeping wholesale electricity supply prices at a low level provides them with an advantage, especially in Bitcoin price declines.
Bitdeer, on the other hand, stated that the number of Bitcoins held by customers, regardless of their deposits, was reset to zero; announced that they have completely sold the 193.8 BTC they produced recently. Cango Inc. He paid his debts by selling his 1,026 BTC assets, and after the balance sheet adjustment, he returned to the market in April with his new AI subsidiary called EcoHash.
Data confirms the transition from mining to artificial intelligence
Looking at the overall picture, profit margins from Bitcoin mining activities are gradually narrowing. On the other hand, artificial intelligence-based infrastructure services offer billion-dollar new revenue opportunities and attract the intense interest of large technology companies.
It is calculated that IREN will have a total capacity of 1,210 megawatts by 2027, and MARA will have a new natural gas power plant of 505 megawatts. DMG is completely transforming its existing facility. The new infrastructure capacity created in this context is far above all systems established by these companies for Bitcoin mining to date. Industry representatives expect these figures to grow further in the coming period with new declarations.
